Ask your children how often they ask questions in math class. Younger children should be asking questions at least weekly while older children should be asking questions daily. If they aren’t asking questions frequently, there are two likely scenarios.
1) The math class is too easy and they are not engaged. Read our article about keeping accelerated students engaged.
2) Rather than ask questions, they choose to sit quietly - suffering, confused, and frustrated. If the teacher doesn’t use strategies to check the understanding of every child in their class throughout the lesson, or throughout the unit, these quiet children may never get the help they need. That’s how learning gaps start. Without remediation, these learning gaps prevent further learning. Even worse, the struggling child’s self-confidence will likely erode.
Why Don’t The Children Just Raise Their Hand and Ask Questions?
There are many reasons a child may not like asking questions in class, including:
The child has a timid or quiet nature.
The child doesn’t want to look “stupid” in front of peers (especially common in ages 10 and up).
The teacher does not encourage questions.
The lesson is far beyond the child’s understanding. He or she doesn’t know the right question to ask. Feeling completely lost makes it almost impossible to ask meaningful questions. Any child with learning gaps from the previous year might fall into this category.
The child has a learning disability or special need related to speech, language hearing loss, auditory processing. The child may need a slower lesson pace to give him or her the time needed to formulate the right question.
The math class fails to engage the child.
The child lacks study skills and/or the ability to pay attention in class.
The child receives ESL services. Contrary to popular belief, learning math in a second language is just as challenging as learning any other subject in a foreign language.
Don’t Let Your Child Suffer in Silence
Mathnasium of Littleton provides a safe environment to ask questions. Our instructors check in every few minutes to verify progress and discuss the material each child is learning. They stay as long as necessary to give children every opportunity to ask questions. Each lesson is tailored to the level of the student. Come try a free trial lesson - a full hour session with our amazing instructors - to see how it goes. Just give us a call at 303-979-9077 first so we can prepare materials and ensure we have enough instructors.
This article was written by and owned by Cuttlefish Copywriting, www.cuttlefishcopywriting.com. It is copyright protected. Mathnasium of Littleton has permission to use it. Other Mathnasium locations should contact Heather at [email protected] before using it.
